bi-poler in baby's ?!

Emma - posted on 04/07/2010
(
24 moms have responded
)

1,590

15

114

This was a comment left on another group "Questions to ask yourself, and be brutally honest if you cant, ask these of some one else who is with your daughter alot. 1) Has she always been able to show she doesnt care when being punished, like time out or toys taken away? 2) When she is involved with something does it take everything you can think of to get her attention? 3) Is she almost obsessed with the activity or play she is doing? 4) Is she quick to show emotion, like anger, sadness, ect.. 5) does she show frustration easily, quick with the temper? 6) what are her sleeping patterns, can she go all day with out a nap and is an early riser no matter the time she goes to sleep at night, or is she difficult to get up in the mornings? 7) Is her day better when things run on her time frames or the schedule you have for her? 8) does she openly attach herself to strangers or hide from them with what seems like total fear? This is going to sound shocking but if alot of these questions are easily answered then you may want to haveher Dr. check her for bipolar or ADHD, I know it sounds impossible at such a young age but I have been dealing with these things since my son was about 2 years old."

Im not saying this woman is in anyway wrong as she has consulted her doctor and if following the advice given.

What i want to know is what the rest of you think about these disorders being diagnosed at such a young age.

I personally think that you can not and that in fact it can be detrimental to label children with disorders at such a young age.

MOST HELPFUL POSTS

April - posted on 04/11/2010

3,420

16

263

yes, i do think babies and children can show signs of a disorder early on. however, i don't believe they should be diagnosed in infancy/toddlerhood. it's too hard to distinguish between a true disorder and a infant that may just be a late bloomer.

i have a friend whose son has autism...she says she didn't know any different when he was an infant, but looking back...she could see that the signs were there. hindsight is 20/20! in theory, some of the things he did could still be considered normal. fpr example, he didn't say his first word until he was 2 (but many kids are late talkers and are fine)

I think if you have a concern then by all means talk to a psychologist, as a matter of fact my arguing that ADD is overdiagnosed has actually led me to believe that ADD is in fact my problem. Funny how that works. But I think the person who posted the symptoms needs to get her facts straight, because its a compilation of symptoms from a number of disorders, none of which are bipolar and only some of which are ADD or ADHD, and she also needs to include that key piece of information about inconsistency with developmental level, because it makes a huge difference. Especially when she's probably advising a freaked out new mom who will see that list and have a panic attack.

I'm not sure about all that. I do know that my best friend's ds had some behaviors that were 'noticeable' to me at a young age and they always made an excuse as him just being a 2/3 year old boy. Well... he was diagnosed Asperger's at 6. So, were his behaviors typical of 2/3 year old boys or was there really something that could have been done for him earlier...? We'll never know.

24 Comments

i know i'm overreacting, i'm just really tired of people making my sons problems seem like it's my fault, or that i'm imagining it, or it really can't be that bad. it just flipped something in my brain, and i freaked. it seems so ridiculous to me that people actually think other people are using it as an excuse for a pity party. i'm sure we all asked god to make our kid have adhd so everyone could feel sorry for us. or that we're making it up, there's a word for that - it's called munchausens syndrome. i'm sorry, but it does piss me off that some people out there might think that about me, when they don't know me, or know my son. and they think that purely based off the fact that my son has been diagnosed with adhd (notice i didn't say "is adhd" just to try to please you).

and just so we're clear, it wouldn't bother my son if he heard me say that he "is" adhd. he could give a shit less about how i word things. he knows he's my son, and i'm his mom, and that he's not defined by adhd. it's not like i go around whining and bitching all day long that him having adhd is just the most horrible thing, the word adhd is RARELY used in my house-you have nothing to fear about how MY child feels.

i do realize i'm making a mountian out of a molehill, but it's just been building up for a while now and your comments struck something in me.

i work with men all day but that doesn't mean i have a clue of what it's like to live with a man. each man is different, one may be easy to live with another one might not be. just like my child is different from all of these other people who you work around, and each one of them is different from each other.

i'm sooooo tired of people making me feel like my child's syptoms are imaginary, or less than what they are. it's horse shit! nobody i know whose child has adhd has it easy, and they don't make excuses for their child's behavior BUT, you know what? they have every right to because it is a chemical imbalance. you know, something they can't control?! just like an autistic child can't control some of his actions because their brain is wired that way, and adhd child can't easily control their actions, you'd think with you working with adhd teens you might have studied up on it a little.

Kati - I have a brother and a sister with ADHD, and I work in a treatment home for teens where like 5/7 of the kids are diagnosed with ADHD and being treated. I have quite a good idea of what it is like to be around kids who don't have full and total control over their impulses. Even if I didn't, it doesn't change the fact that you defining your child by his mental illness is actually very harmful. You may think of it as only different wording, but if your son hears you desribe him to other people like "Oh, my son is ADHD", what do you think he is going to feel? Hmm? Like shit, thats what. Like he's not wholly your son, or a person indepedent of his condition.

And nobody said anything about *your* child not being held accountable for his actions, just that a lot of parents use it as an excuse. Like its "too hard" to discipline their child, because the kid "can't control himself", or whatever. I totally agree with that, a lot of parents do.

the shit that drives me absolutely nuts is when people who have no effing clue what having a child with adhd is like making judgements about wording that people use in a fucking thread. nobody said my child shouldn't be held accountable for his actions, you all jumped to the conclusion all by yourself.

I totally agree with you Lyndsay. And for alot of those people (not all) I find the label is also used as an excuse for things rather than addressing the issue... Like just b/c they "are" ADHD they shouldn't be held to any kind of responsibility or whatever.

I also want to state one other thing. I have a really big problem with people who label their kids according to a diagnoses. For example, like one mom said in this thread, "My son is ADHD." No, your son is not ADHD. Your son is your son, your child, a part of you. Your son may *have* ADHD, but he is still a person separate from that. Labels are harmful. This shit drives me absolutely freakin nuts.

A pediatrician is not qualified to make this diagnosis. Your child would need to see a mental health professional, psychologist or psychiatrist, and preferably one who focuses on children.

I think a lot of behavioral disorders are over diagnosed these days and quite possibly by under-qualified people. As a parent, we absolutely need to get our children the help they need. But let us be sure that the help being offered is what they really need. It is to our childrens' benefit to do OUR homework and talk to more than one doctor when anything is potentially going on with them.

When I was diagnosed as Bi-Polar, they told me that it shows up at around 9 years old (around the time when the "pre-teen/teenage" hormones start to kick in). I think a lot of doctors are just too quick to judge nowadays.

Additionally: to diagnose bipolar disorder there must be 2 weeks of diagnosed depression, as well as at least one week of documented mania.None of those symptoms, IMO are consistent with the DSM criteria for bipolar disorder, it seems to be a compilation of ADD, autism, and schizophrenia actually- and schizophrenia is almost never present in a child.

My husband is Bi-polar and he wasn't diagnosed till he was about 28, so knowing how hard it is to pinpoint certain mental disorders, I definitely DO NOT believe you can diagnose a child that young. Basically what you just described is typical toddler behaviors, or behaviors that can be from A LOT of different disorders. I think our society these days are so quick to label every child with add, adhd and so many other things just to fund the pharmaceutical companies and there putting our children at risk of becoming dependent on unnecessary medications or even worse, future drug addicts! Not to steer off topic, but my sister is only 21 years old and ill admit, she is kind of a hypercondriac who is always going to the doctor, but they have her on 2 anti-anxiety medicines, ritalin for adhd and sleeping pills. I know for a fact she does not need any of those things, she is just a overwhelmed college student who put her trust in these prescription happy doctors!

Having a very Bipolar brother, I would say that you cannot possibly have the right diagnosis for a child THAT YOUNG. It is hard to diagnose psychological problems to begin with, but trying to diagnose a toddler??? For crying out loud! ALL children at that young of an age go through temper tantrums, growth spurts and times where they hardly want to sleep at all. A lot of it is that they are simply testing the parents to see what they can and cannot get away with! This whole thing about Bipolar disorder for a toddler is a bunch of BS (sorry).

i don't think the woman was saying that a 2 year old can be diagnosed with this stuff, but i'm sure that looking back she noticed these things since her child was 2. i know i noticed these things earlier than 2 even (my son is adhd), i know women who have children that are autistic noticed these things early on as well.

i can tell the differences in my childrens behavior. my oldest son i could tell there was something wrong, my middle boy, he's fine, i could tell what is "normal" toddler behavior and what isn't with him. could i definitely know for sure when he was 2, NO. but looking back there was somethings that were different about him.

lol amanda...we say that all the time about my daughter...well she's 15 mos....but its just an ongoing joke obviously. the fact that any professional will buy that toddler behaviour is true psychological disorders scares me....

Lol I think it has just about as much credibility as that study that concluded all toddlers are psychopaths :P I think people are way too quick to jump to conclusions. "Oh my three year old has an attention span of a gnat, it must be ADHA" It's never oh they are just three, or maybe his diet has too much sugar, or maybe he's sensitive to food dyes, maybe he's not getting enough exercise...